A Feather In The Cap For The Indian Space Programme

Abstract:  India created a sort of space history when the first ever interplanetary  probe of the country, Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) Mangalyann, successfully entered the orbit around the Red Planet on 24 September 2014. Evidently, no other country has been able  to reach the orbit around the Mars in the very first attempt. Significantly, major space faring nations including Russia and USA were able to pull off success in their attempts to reach Mars only after initial failures and setbacks  One more feather in the cap of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is that MOM has outlived its designed lifespan of six months. The article sheds light on the saga of MOM described as the cheapest ever ticket to Mars.

Quietly and efficiently, India’s first ever interplanetary probe, MOM or Mangalyaan as it called, has successfully completed six months in the orbit around the Red Planet. It is indeed a tribute to the excellence that the ISRO has attained in designing and developing deep space probes that MOM has outlived its designed mission life span of six months. All available indications point out to the possibility of Indian Mars probe going strong for another six months, Though taken up as a technology demonstrator project meant to help the country master technologies for design, planning, management and   operations of an interplanetary mission, MOM has made a significant contribution to the study of the Red Planet from a variety of angles. It is not for nothing that recently the Indian Parliament roundly applauded the unqualified success of MOM. The high point of MOM lies in the fact that it was assembled in a short span of around 16-months with two third of its components having been acquired from indigenous sources. The sterling triumph of Managalyaan, which by all means is a vibrant symbol of India’s growing prowess in space exploration,  has conferred on India the status of being a forward-looking global space power with its vision set firmly on conquering the  planetary world.

Over the last six months of its active mission life around the Maritan orbit, MOM has made available a stunning range of  Martian surface pictures in addition to mapping the surface features of the planet with a particular focus on the chemicals present. More importantly, the MOM has also looked for tell-tale signs of methane whose presence could confirm the possibility of the Red Planet having supported primitive life forms during the course of its evolution.

According to ISRO, the scientific objectives of MOM are to study the Martian surface features, morphology, mineralogy and Martian atmosphere with five fully Indian made scientific payloads. The five  scientific instruments on-board MOM are: Mars Colour Camera  (MCC) for optical imaging, Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (TIS) to map the surface composition and mineralogy, Methane Sensor for Mars (MSM) to detect the presence of  methane, Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyser (MENCA) to study the neutral composition of  Martian upper atmosphere  and Lyman Alpha Photometer (LASM) to detect D/H ratio  in order to study the dynamics of the escape process of Martian atmosphere. In October last, MOM had made a close encounter with the comet Siding Spring.

Described as the cheapest ever ticket to the Red Planet, the low cost of MOM has been ascribed to the “modular design” and “frugal engineering skill” that ISRO had pressed into service while developing this deep space probe. Considered a logical follow on to India’s  highly successful maiden mission to moon, Chandrayaan-1 launched in October 2008, the MOM mission concept took off  with a feasibility study way back in 2010. The successful accomplishment of the mission objectives of Chandrayaan-1, which had contributed significantly towards  improving  our understanding about earth’s nearest neighbour, emboldened ISRO to sustain its leadership position in space through an interplanetary mission.

As it is, MOM was launched by means of an augmented version of the four stage Indian space workhorse, PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) from the first launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), the Indian spaceport in Sriaharikota island, located 90-kms to the north of Chennai on 05 November 2013. MOM was placed into an elliptical parking orbit with a perigee of 248.4-km and an apogee of 23,556-km inclined at an angle of 19.27 degrees to the equator.   MOM probe was pushed into Trans Mars trajectory after about a month in the earth orbit through a series of seven apogee-raising manoeuvres carried out by ISRO. After cruising along Trans Mars trajectory for a period of 298 days, MOM was successfully inserted into its intended orbit around the Mars on 24 September 2014. This spectacular achievement made India the first country to reach the orbit around Mars in the very first attempt. Evidently, no other space agency in the world has notched up success in sending its Mars probe into the orbit around the Red Planet in the very first attempt. On another plane, this breath-taking achievement has made India the first Asian country to successfully accomplish a Maritan mission. As it is, the Mars missions of both Japan and China, the two  leading Asian space powers, had  come cropper before they  could reach the  orbit around the Red  Planet. The MOM is being monitored from ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bangalore while the data from the spacecraft is  being received by the Indian  Deep Space Network (ISDN) located in Byalalu village on the outskirts of Bangalore.

It is in the fitness of things that the ISRO team engaged in designing and developing the Mars spacecraft had carefully studied the  success and failure of the US, European and Russian missions to the Red Planet. This is one of the factors responsible for the smooth and flawless performance of the Mangalaan probe. Prime Minister  Narendra Modi who witnessed the  24 Septeber spectacular insertion  of MOM into the  orbit around the Red Planet observed, “We have dared to reach out into the unknown. And we have achieved the near impossible. Travelling a mind boggling distance of more than 650-million  kms, we have gone beyond the boundaries of human enterprise and imagination. We have accurately navigated our spacecraft  through a route known to a very few”. Indeed, the –tech-savvy Modi was quick to point out that, of the 51 Mars missions attempted so far across the world,  only 21 had succeeded. By all means, the scintillating  success of MOM Mangalyaan stands out as a brightest symbol of “aache din” for Indian science and technology. There is no denying the point that Mangalyaan was the most  complex and challenging  space mission ever attempted by the Indian space agency.

The Rs.4500 milion Indian Mars mission did excite global interest on account of its unique features. For instance, according to the British aerospace magazine Flight International, ”Remarkably,  ISRO has spent a mere US$75-million on the Mangalyaan mission, an  astoundingly  small budget for a project so complex. By comparison, Aefonso  Curaran’s  acclaimed  2013  space epic,  Gravity, starring Sandra Bullock and George  Clooney  was made at an estimated budget of US$100-million”. This observation is a sterling tribute to the low cost engineering skill perfected by ISRO over the years of its involvement in the exercise of building a variety of satellites. Meanwhile, ISRO has hinted that it plans to send probes to Venus and to the inner asteroid belt. Planetary missions form part of Space Vision India 2025.

It is not for nothing that Dr.K.Kasturirangan, a former Chairman of ISRO had made the point that  Mangalyaan will be a key milestone   for the Indian space programme that would also boost Indian credentials to join the future international deep space missions not only to Mars but also to other planets of the solar system. Not to be left behind, the former Indian President and globally acknowledged space and defence  scientist, Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam, has highlighted the need for India to join the global efforts aimed at sending manned expeditions to the Red  Planet as a prelude to setting up  human colonies in Mars in the future. For Mars is considered a planetary body with possible potentials for supporting human civilization in the event of a catastrophe befalling the spaceship earth which happens to be the only  hospitable home for the humans.

The author is a freelance writer on subjects related to defence and aerospace. Views expressed are personal.